June 26, 2012

King of the Hill

After much consideration, I've decided that I'm most definitely not a fan of "King of the Hill," which we often close out the Wednesday night class with. Why? Well, because I seem to be the only white belt in that class right now, which means that I last about 5-10 seconds before some blue, purple or brown belt flips me onto my head and boots me to the back of the line. Again and again.

Aside from the normally pitiful finish to the night, Wednesdays are still among my favorites. Last week, I ended up doing a warmup roll with Spike which, considering he's the biggest guy at the gym, was not so much a "warmup" as a OMG, can't breathe, so tired...wait, we still have a whole class left?! kind of roll. Afterwards, Carlo brought everyone together to demonstrate the first technique, which involved this complicated flipping and rolling of your partner straight over your face. When we broke to practice the move, Spike came over all motivated and enthusiastic, saying "Okay, let's do it!" I gave him the look - you know, the bitch, u out ur damn mind?! look - and paired up with Liz instead. Spike looked all let down that his warmup buddy had abandoned him, but considering I had enough trouble pulling off the move on Liz, it was indisputably the best decision for us both.

Speaking of which, it's like...raining X chromosomes here at Ronin lately. Where the hell are all of these women suddenly coming from? Besides me and Liz, there is now badass Kung Fu Xena and two new girls who joined the Fundamentals class, and others have been dropping by for kickboxing and weekend sessions here and there. I mean, at this rate we're really taking over the gym. Xena has officially become my favorite partner for standup work and if she decided to grapple, I think she'd be a great person to train jiu jitsu with as well. She's not sure about the whole slip-n'-slide sweating rivers of nastiness all over each other thing though. I'm still trying to convince her.

BJJ champ Felipe Costa came in to teach jiu jitsu all last week and sadly, I missed the first two days because I had to get more of that disgusting allergy testing done. I made up for it by working extra hard and staying super late on Wednesday, although it was hard to find space since the mats were so packed. I worked with Liz for most of the class, during which Felipe taught us a few new tricks. We closed out the class by rolling, so I had a few intense rounds with The Kid and Birdie (I'm so used to working with more experienced grapplers that it's always slightly disconcerting when I remember I'm actually up against someone newer for a change and need to stop abusing them), and then a slower flow roll with Diesel, which was a welcome relief.

As we bowed out, Brickling got promoted to blue belt (yay) and then almost everyone stayed for open mat, going one lengthy round after another, nonstop, until I thought my lungs were going to explode from the strain of breathing so hard. I went another round with The Kid and then took on KGB, who managed to tap me out with an americana right at the end, but I played very well against him otherwise. I still can't get over how much of a change I feel rolling with him now as opposed to a few months ago. To finish, I finally got to go a round with Trek for the first time in ages. He's great about working hard on his technique instead of resorting to powering through moves like some other big guys do. I got to play offense for the most part and although he swept me a few times, it was a pretty even game and I actually surprised him with a successful kimura from half guard...thank you Liz for making me practice the move during warmups earlier that evening!

On Thursday, we had an in-house blue belt tournament with snacks, soda, pizza, alcohol and lots of good-natured competitive spirit. Everyone was betting on the same two people to win but I told them it would be Diesel and LJack who came out on top and guess what...I was right. Diesel came over afterwards and asked if he'd made me a rich lady. Don't I wish. Considering the odds, if I'd bet actual money, I would've cleaned house! Next time I'll know better.

Side note: I was rolling with Frodo the other day, flipped up and totally landed on his junk. Luckily, he was wearing a good cup so there wasn't too much screaming. Honestly, I can't believe there are so many guys who grapple without wearing titanium. It seems reckless when doing a sport that involves so much close contact in and around the groin area. Not that I go out of my way to kick between the legs or anything but clearly, accidents do happen...

12 comments:

  1. None of the guys at my gym wear cups and I don't know how they do it, because I swear, I'm a clumsy mf. Either their junk get used to the punishment or I'm much less of a spaz than I thought, or there's a big male conspiracy to exaggerate the pain of pummeled privates.
    what the heck, I'm always up for a good conspiracy theory.

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    1. Haha yeah, I'm finding that surprisingly few guys at my gym actually do wear them. Guess I'm not as dangerous as I think since these incidents rarely occur!

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  2. I hate when they wear cups. It's SO painful when they put on an armbar and use the cup as a fulcrum. Argh!

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    1. Liz said the exact same thing yesterday. I'm surprised because I've never had a problem with guys causing pain by wearing cups but I guess other people find it uncomfortable when doing certain moves. I guess it's not such a big deal, but I do find it funny when you're rolling and suddenly from across the room you hear "OH SHIT!" and some guy is holding his crotch with his partner looking like "oops!" Grappling just seems like such an easy way to get accidentally knocked in the groin at some point...I guess comfort trumps the risk for most, though. And I know it's not allowed in competition so you might as well train how you plan to fight but still...

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  3. Eventually you get used to rolling without a cup, you kind of learn to position yourself so that your crotch doesn't bear the brunt of the impact.

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  4. My old coach called the "king of the hill" drill "ladder drills." I was not very fond of them, until I got used to them. We definitely help develop your stamina if you do them consistently.

    And I couldn't imagine rolling without a cup! I experienced too many accidents when I first started. I trained with a lot of really machismo MMA guys at the time though (could have something to do with it, you think?).

    Best,

    Ronnie

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    1. Ouch, sounds painful. I suppose I can understand why a lot of guys don't, although being prone to injuries, if I was a guy I'm sure I would lol. Normally though the people at my gym are super laid back and we don't get many spazzes or overly aggressive douchebags in spite of it being a great MMA gym.

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    2. Yeah, I see the douchebags less and less these days, but there are a few out there still. Most of the time, people are laid back anymore. MMA has evolved into much more of a sport-oriented and professional discipline than it used to be back in the day when it was still being called "NHB"!!

      - Ronnie

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  5. I'm not a big fan of King of the Hill either, for the reason you mentioned: the best person will get a decent work out, but everybody else will only have a limited opportunity to do anything.

    I much prefer the '1-2-3' method, which is similar but more egalitarian. Everybody lines up against the wall, then they are counted off in threes, all along the line. For the first round, all the number 1s go to the mat: they stay there for the entire round, with everybody else switching in. When the round is up, the number 2s go down, then the number 3s.

    That way, everybody gets plenty of time to work the position against a range of body types, skill levels etc. It also encourages people to take risks and experiment, as they know they aren't going to lose their place on the mat if something they try out ends up putting them in a bad position or getting tapped.

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    1. We did something similar to the 1-2-3 method when we had larger classes. The "king of the hill" drills were usually saved for small groups, especially on weekends when NHB/ MMA was the focus of open roll so it usually wasn't a problem to get everyone a turn in a 45-60 minute tenure.

      But you're right. If there are a lot of people it doesn't provide much time for each individual to develop stamina and the 1-2-3 would be much more ideal. All good points!

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  6. Somehow I always seem to be absent on the nights games like these are played in class. Works for me.

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